is Steam Big Picture as a desktop environment for ubuntu, or something along those lines - a linux OS which boots up into Steam. So you can build your own steam console with the hardware you want (and is fully upgradeable when new tech comes out) and ready to rock as soon as the OS is installed.

We already have Ubuntu variants which boot straight to an application (XMBCbuntu), and use the official repos for updates.Chances are someone will mix up a Steamuntu, even if its not officially supported by Valve but gets all the official Ubuntu updates.

From what I can tell of the beta Linux Steam client, its responsible for its own updates rather than adding a new repository (like Google Chrome does) and relying on the user to keep their OS up to date.

...So you can build your own steam console with the hardware you want (and is fully upgradeable when new tech comes out) and ready to rock as soon as the OS is installed.

That would defeat the strongest argument for the console: it just runs and you know it will runs what's available for it. Build-your-own comes with the all the headaches that come with it: driver compatibility, hardware reliability, and performance requirements for individual games. Console games are for all the Joe Sixpacks who just wants to flip a switch and play. When I used to buy games for my SNES, I didn't have to look at the box and wonder "do I have enough RAM for this?", "will I need to install a better graphics card to get smooth gameplay?"

If you want a full-screen gaming environment for Ubuntu, when Steam is available for Linux, is there any reason you couldn't just build a dedicated gaming PC for the living room in an HTPC case, and then install Ubuntu and set it to auto-run Steam in Big Picture mode when it boots up. This sounds like a request you can already fulfill on your own.

But the Steam box could be a list of minimum requirements so devs can program against a known configuration. If you choose to go off and build your own with different hardware, the support just wouldn't be there...

A Steam box is a platform owned by Valve. They control its destiny. This control is important to them, and to the gamers who entrust them with their money. This control ensures that the platform can't be yanked out from under them, depriving their customers of their investment and ruining their good name.

Instead of having an actual steam box, publish a "steam standard" which pc makers can certify against and game makers can use in their requirements.

Instead of a long list of requirements, the game can just say, "steam 2013 or better" and people can buy machines certified to those standards. The trick would be to publish useful standards frequently enough that they remain useful, but not so often that there are as many standards as possible configurations anyway.

OP is right on the money. The difference between Console vs. PC has nothing to do with hardware or software, and everything to do with control.

The bottom line is that all of the hardware and software in these categories have changed, and are going to continue to change. The fundamental difference is who gets to choose the direction of those changes. Under a vendor-controlled environment, there is one-size-fits-all convenience, and clarity in design for developers. Under PC environments, you have freedom to

That probably wouldn't be easy as too many things are evolving too rapidly in Linux ATM, you have the kernel changes, Pulse,Unity, and of course you have the issues with the graphics drivers, its just changing far too rapidly to make a good DIY console using Linux.

I'll probably get hate for pointing this out but other than Tablets this is the one place where Win 8's metro GUI actually works well, its Metro interface is practically a 10 foot UI right OOTB, hard to miss those big ass fugly tiles with a remote

Given the constant evolution of graphics hardware and considering that open-source Linux drivers often lack behind by a generation anyways, the idea of relying on up to 2-3 year old drivers for gaming seems absurd.

You do that all the time on consoles. You don't seriously think that the Nintendo Wii, which hasn't had a firmware update in a while, is running brand new drivers for its video card?

Lock the kernel version, have it do automatic updates at 3am (with a check to delay doing them if the owner is gaming at the time), and there is no reason that a Linux-based console can't succeed. And by going with Linux as a platform, it does exactly what TFA said it would do... you can buy their console, or you can build your

One of the key selling points of the Amiga, especially for parents was that not only was the system able to direct boot into games like a console (which kept the kids happy), but it could also be used to learn, do your homework and write programs etc - which kept the parents happy. This was the stated reason why my parents bought me one anyway.

It certainly worked for me. I got an A500 and a Panasonic dot matrix printer with epson emulation and used it to print papers for many years. I had to write a lot of lines in elementary school and it hurts me pretty badly to write much with a pen or pencil, so typing really improved my academic output.

Arguably, Valve probably wouldn't be pushing full "steam" ahead on this if Microsoft hadn't dreamt up a Windows Store. This is in my opinion a real game changer for the PC ecosystem and the future of Windows.

I admin a windows server. My typical thought goes along the lines of this: 'Ok, I need to delete all those desktop.ini files because they are screwing up Microsoft's stupid search. No problem, I'll just ls, pipe grep, pipe xargs... oh. Windows. Right.'

I've heard MS Exchange now delivers almost everything promised for version 5.5 back in 2000 or so. A few more releases and people will stop losing email. If it wasn't for volume shadow copy being introduced by a different group at MS you still wouldn't be able to get full bare metal quality backups of a MS Exchange server without having to shut down all the Exchange services first.Microsofts's server products are their malnourished abused redheaded stepchild. It shows true dedication from that part of MS

And even more things where a serial console server is a lot faster...I don't even enter the server room unless i need to fix a hardware fault, the idea of standing in a cold noisy server room operating a touchscreen or slide out keyboard is riduculous! In fact, the servers are a good hour's worth of travel away from me and i haven't been there since new year's eve last year (when we moved stuff from another location to minimise disruption).

How is yet another console a real game changer? PC Gamers have had the options of consoles for decades, they just aren't appealing, a locked down ecosystem that is dictated by the manufacturer, in this case valve. This will be competing against the PS/Xbox/WiiU, yes it will be interesting to see how it goes against them but it is DOA as a gaming machine replacement.

Valve's Steam gets those sales because it ISN'T a CONSOLE. The console and PC Gaming market are really quite separate markets and Valve making a console will not mean PC gamers suddenly decide they like consoles. If the choice is go to a Valve console or find another way to buy your games I would hazard a guess most PC gamers will simply find another method to buy games.

Go ahead and think that. Go ahead and think you can take Steam's customers away by breaking their engine on your OS. And find what you get. Steam customers are primarily gamers and they don't have any OS or platform loyalty whatsoever. They would adopt BEOS or OS/2 if the game ran in it an they got better ping times.

I never suggested they had an OS loyalty, what they have is a PC loyalty, most PC gamers, myself included hate console gaming, I don't care whether it is from Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo or Valve and guess what, we also have no loyalty for valve, I play PC games and to be honest I don't give a shit what platform or who supplies (though I avoid Valve, Origin, blizzard where possible as their DRM sucks balls).

And if we're reading this right, the Steambox is basically a Linux-based computer with connectivity for your TV.

How many desktop monitors are out there with HDMI input these days? And do you really think they're going to invent a new connector when there's already a huge number of game controllers that connect with USB? What's to stop you from plugging your mouse/keyboard into it, and plugging it into a desktop monitor? A majority of games being made for PC these days already have native support for game co

From the perspective of the user, there are only two differences. Controls, and a few minor traditions like the use of savepoints rather than savestates in console gaming. This steam box, coming from a PC tradition, is likely to inherit from the PC side. That means PC gamers will have something familiar to use. It could well lure across a lot of PC gamers who until now rejected consoles, but would be attracted by the idea of a PC gaming experience with the convenience and reliability of a console. Just buy

To Microsoft's OS division. It would be more like a large kick in the nuts to their Xbox division if it takes off, since that's what it's actually competing with. And like tibman said above me, the metric you should be using is percentage of gamers, not percentage of PC users. You seem to be implying that gaming is something other than a multi-billion dollar industry and I'm not sure why.

70 million xbox sold, 5.6 million simulatenous users on steam tonight(presumably more total)

Yup, microsoft wouldn't even notice.

A more comparable figures would be Steam is 54 million active user accounts [concurrent peak users did peak at 6 million]. The numbers seem surprisingly close to seriously threaten Microsofts console gaming platform with Steam Cross-Multi-Platform

As for Microsoft not even noticing, they would be incredibly foolish not to, Microsoft has very little benefit over other platforms right now, even installations will be overtaken by android as soon as next year. Its gaming...and its control of the Graphics API lock-in are essential to if remaining relevant to the consumer market, which is being increasingly challenged.

Microsoft ALWAYS notice the competition they will be out with their chequebooks and lawyers banking on steams door.

You need to re-read my post, I coin the word Cross-Multi-Platform. I could have used the words "Steam ecosytem" if you prefer. The fact that you think gamers are either console gamers or PC gamers that is a nonsense. Ironically so as Microsoft are pushing for a convergence of their self styled ecosystem. The reality is in the modern world they are just shop fronts. I look forward to steam on my Android tablet; running on my Tivo box.

People buy consoles buy for the convenience that a PC can't provide. If a Steam Box could offer the same convenience of a console for PC gaming then quite a few people might think about switching over. So it's not just about the users Steam currently has, but about all those that they could attract with a Steam Box.

Google "concurrent xbox live users", and it looks like they set a record of 2 million a few years back. That's all users, not just the paying Gold users. I'm sure they've grown since then, but tripled?

Now, the obvious caveat is that it's more common to play on an Xbox without an internet connection than it is to play in Steam's offline mode. But Steam's user base is definitely at least comparable to Xbox's.

Steam measures logged in users as concurrent users. Many people (myself included) are counted 24/7 as a concurrent user even though I rarely play a steam game (usually civ when I get bored) as the steam client starts up by default when your computer is on, people only load up an xbox when they are going to play a game.

No, but work and other forms of entertainment have always worked great on Linux. Hell, I can use random off-the-shelf printers more easily on Linux then on Windows now. It's a superb OS when you want to get some data analysis done.

There are only two reason to boot into Windows - Office, and gaming. Office is a legacy issue - my professors are now using iPads and other devices which don't speak "native" office and I suspect sending them ODFs would lead to less "your formatting is all broken" problems.

Valve over the years has gotten a large foothold in Windows gaming, now working on Linux gaming and set-top gaming. All they will be missing is smartphone (and mac?) presence before they can start having a google-like influence and presence.

This is a bit worrisome, because Valve has a tendency to let non-critical issues go unaddressed for long periods of time, instead preferring to work on some new feature that will inevitably have its own set of ignored issues.

As more and more games have decided to integrate completely with Steam, I've been having more and more problems with friends dropping from games when Steam decides to just randomly disconnect people as they update servers or whatever. This happens 1-3 times a week, where their servers j

I am assuming that by locked down, they imply a signed bootloader and/or a signed kernel image. I wouldn't be opposed to that provided all games remain available for the open PC platform as well.

Such a thing is reasonable if they want to subsidize the hardware with games purchases and minimize tech support costs (There's far less headache to deal with if they can't do anything other than what you specifically approved. Anybody who has ever worked in an end user facing IT position would know this.) We can ta

Until this is resolved [imgur.com], I'm wary of locking myself into Valve any more than I already am. The thought of a locked down environment worries me, too; that seems antithetical to what has made PC gaming and enthusiasm what it is.

Still, it's Valve, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but being trapped in one more walled garden not only with software but hardware is not the direction I like the industry to move.

Exactly the same flaming idiots who complain about the Apple's walled garden are championing the same thing for valve

With the massive difference that Value does not restrict you from loading alternative software on that machine, or limits the platform your running on...On second thoughts its nothing like Apples closed garden. In fact its starting to be incredibly cross platform...In fact it breaks walls. In fact Steam is doing this because it fears Microsoft's Walled garden,

Now it does have [loose] DRM, locking programs to the store, at the cost of convenience. Which is completely different issue...whatever you think of t

I had the privilege of trying to install stream from behind a hotel firewall/router. Still doesn't work. Would download at under 16 kb/sec and there is hundreds of megs to download. I seen to recall that this is because it only uses a single tcp connection when there is a firewall and basically steam wasn't designed with this in mind. Remember, steam is fundamentally a web browser and file downloader. I know a few games where the stream based server browser also is very spotty. Firewall/NAT issues are prett

You could just plug it in, and play straight away few seconds later, nothing beats that feeling.Today everything has to boot forever, it takes several minutes just to wait for another game to boot up, I hate that. I live with it, but I don't like it.

With todays amazing solid state drive developments, this shouldn't be impossible. USB-memory sticks costs almost as little as CD's and Floppy Disks did back in the days, so we're getting there.

Have you read the Kotaku story? Newell expects 3rd party hardware specifically for Steam and its big screen mode; these would obviously be PCs. Their own hardware will be locked down, but you don't have to buy it.

I mean, let's be honest, casual gamers buying $5 games for their cellphones do not have any of the returns of the dedicated gamer buying $50 games for a console, let alone a fanatical gamer who buys those $80 game + DLC / expansion packs with expensive gaming rigs. You probably won't get rich with the former, whereas the latter has been quite profitable. There may be more 'casual' gamers, but they don't spend nearly as much as intense gamers.

It doesn't matter. The "cheap valve box" owners will quickly rise in numbers and the "real PC gamers" will be dwarfed by this. The incentive to develop games for anything beyond the four low-end-hardware-consoles (MS, Sony, Nintendo, Valve)

This is the current state of play, I'm pretty sure the idea is for "3rd Party Hardware Vendors to Compete", they will have only two things to compete on price/performance, looking at the not too dissimilar Android phone/tablet market. This seems incredibly good for the consumer.

Performance is irrelevant, when the developers will have little incentive to create games targeted at anything but the lowest-common-denominator

...That has always been true...but its demonstrably not true. The reality is if you look at the current PC gaming platform, Android gaming platform. Its not true, why would you think something different would happen here. If you do not know why it doesn't happen. Its because maximising your *potential* market, is not the same as sales, revenue or even profit.

PC gaming dealt with this a long time ago by just allowing variable graphics settings. The higher your specification, the better the game looks. If you've got outdated or low cost hardware you can still play modern games, just at reduced resolution and quality.

He's not saying they're doing away with Steam on PCs. Steam will still be available on Windows, Mac and - soon - Linux. If Steam stops working on Windows it won't be Valve's fault. And if it does stop working on Windows you'll be able to get most of your Steam games without buying them again - complete with all the in-game content - on a platform that is less hostile to successful Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). They'll maintain Windows Steam for as long as it is possible and financially feasible to do so but given the history of Lotus, Wordperfect, Borland, Aldus, Sun, Star, Netscape, Novell and many others, that won't be forever. Sooner or later Windows will be updated in a way that Steam won't run on it, and that won't be Valve's fault. They're hanging in there for you as best they can, but they don't write the platform.

By doing this he's maybe building an intimidating counter-threat to Microsoft: break Steam like you break the OS for other competing ISVs and we'll take our users elsewhere. By doing so he may be incentivizing Microsoft to not break Windows-based steam. By making a platform they DO own, Valve is making a commitment to continue to offer you a platform your Steam games will run on, in as much as their participating developers will support it. They can't make the developers support it, but this is the best they can do. Buy the Steam console, and your Steam games will be able to continue to be supported because they DO own the platform.

The long and inglorious history of Microsoft killing their most successful ISVs to take their customers is a part of the public courts record. It is not a disputable nor debatable thing. Microsoft considers the broad realm of ISVs an orchard where they can pluck the finest fruit, leaving the rest to ripen or rot.

The Windows app store is a move to cut off Valve's "air supply". Steam is an app store.

Your answer completely sidesteps the GP's point. He's not arguing that the Microsoft app store, when it comes out, will not be in direct competition with Steam. He's pointing out that one of the strengths of Windows is the time and effort spent to ensure backwards compatibility with older applications, which is considered an important reason why it rose to such high prominence on the desktop. Which completely invalidates your original post, since it is based on a false premise. I'll give you a slashdot stor

Wow, a Valve fan. Kinda like an Apple fan. I really don't know how to answer to this, because there is nothing to answer to. I'll try to rephrase my last post, even though I know it is a waste of time.

symbolset: Since Steam will stop working on Windows, Valve is doing this to protect us...caithsith01: I can still run programs written 15 years ago on Windows. Why would Steam stop working?symbolset: MS is well known to take over the market previously occupied by ISVs....chryana: What the hell does this have t

So the apple app store was designed to cut of steam's users as well then? and the Google one.

Your half getting it. Microsoft is trying to mimic Apples walled garden, so the possibility of not allowing other stores other than Microsoft's on your machine is very likely...unlike Google on Android which allows for you to have multiple stores on your device.

As for being in Microsoft control or Streams...My vote is for competition which is why I will always chose devices that are more open.:)

You do know that Gabe Newell used to work for Microsoft, and knows how they play this game, don't you? When he was there he worked this to his advantage and now that he's competing with them he's working his understanding of the way they do things to his advantage also.

When they wanted to win the browser wars, they bundled their browser with windows and made it tightly integrate into the OS. It worked.

When they wanted to win the media player battle, they bundled their media player with windows and made it tightly integrate into the OS. Then their CD ripping ability and consumer media editor too, able to save only to their own formats. It worked, though not so well.

And now Microsoft wants to take over software distribution they are bundling their own store with windows and

Why would this kill PC gaming? It's sounds like just another new console. It's locked down. Not any different than an Xbox or PS. Except without a designated controller, and good luck trying to find a wireless keyboard and mouse that will work for gaming.

You don't have to spend $1000 on new gfx cards every year. There is a sea of awesome games out there that will run more than happily on a $100 card or on integrated Intel gfx.

no, developers target the high end and mark on the box the absolute minimum spec the software will run on. That's NOT to say "this will run as smooth as if you bought our XBox version", you would be lucky to pull 3fps@800x600 at minimum spec.

Example:

Emperor: Battle For Dune. Box spec: 400MHz PII, 64MB RAM, DX7, 16MB D3D GPU, 600MB HDD for minimum install. I bought this game when I had an AMD K6/II-400 with 256MB RAM and a 32MB GeForce II MX, and it was a bag of shit. I could count the frame rate on ONE HAND

It'll have to be locked down to some extent, to reassure publishers that there won't be rampant piracy and protect against users fiddling around and breaking it. But really, could it be as bad as the other major consoles are?

Thats a survey of gamers. The market is quite different than it once was, when only enthusiasts played games.

You can build a better box for sub-$400 easily. The AMD A8-3850 is currently $90 retail, quad core @ 2.9ghz and has a significantly better GPU than the Intel HD 3000 (and even the XBOX 360's GPU since that is about equal to the HD 3000), and thats without any volume discount.

...as for Valve on Linux. They are not just here for the penguins they are being driven out of Windows. I see no reason why the wouldn't continue to support Linux, especially if they plan on promoting a cross-platform storefront. Lets be honest Android on its

A prime example is Boxee. It started as a fork of XBMC, and the software was free. They made some hardware (Boxee box) to make it easier for people. Then they gradually phased out the software, and it's no longer being maintained (don't know if it can be downloaded). It seems that it's easy for companies to get fixated on money^W control^W hardware.

Don't assume. I like hardware DRM: sure it's strict, but console games don't require activation (this is changing... but still mostly true). That's the sticking point for me - retaining ownership of my media. I've never used Steam, I've avoided it since its debut for this reason, but I would get one of these if it meant that I could play games without going online to ask permission first.

Locked down, in this case, I think means something different from what you think it does. When developpers talk about locking down hardware requirements, they mean having a set spec to develop for.

If, for example, the "Steambox" ends up being a Core i3 dual core @ 2.9GHz, with 4GB of RAM, and a Radeon HD 7750 video card, then hardware developpers know that if they make sure their game runs on this spec then they're safe. It's a fairly cheap spec which could easily hit the sub-$400 PC market and go directly for consoles (could probably get it sub-$300 with that spec), and yet it's still powerful enough to run most modern games at max settings on 1080p.

Similarly, if you'd prefer to build your own, maybe have a bigger hard drive (which they'd have to skimp on to keep it sub-$300) and a more powerful processor or an optical drive, then you can. Stick Linux of your choice on there, pull down Steam from the repositories, and you have a reasonable assurance that anything built for the Steambox will also run on your own computer. And if you *really* want to continue running Windows, then you can, for now, and will be able to do so until Microsoft finally kicks Steam out. But Steam is going to be pushing developpers to start making stuff that works on Linux (and is making sure their own engine works on Linux for starters).

I would be surprised if this isn't similar to Gabe's vision, given what he said in the interview itself.